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Nasty nasty wasps. We had one on the property a few years back. An area in the back garden where not much happened on a daily basis a basket was created and should one come within say a meter of the godforsaken wasp nest, soldier wasps would come at me. Anyway i got junior on to it. You have to get up very early in the morning before they start their early shift and douse it with petrol or turpentine. The fumes kill them straight away. None escaped and the place is a peaceful nook of the neighborhood.

Wow, love that last one especially, I have been trying to get a bee in flight in serious close up, but gee it's hard. There are some cheap laser triggers available that you can set up to snap a pic when the beam is broken apparently.

I think of them as greenbottles - and that's not honey they're so keen on."And if one green bottle, should wipe its dirty feetMonday's dinner won't be fit to eat"ETA: But, I slowly hasten to add, aren't they beautiful?!

So you weren't one of the 24 million views?! It had good exposure in an earlier era of PAS in 2009, and impact on a memorable Speaker thread How to look good as a Nazi. Seems rather a long time ago now, 23 million views-worth.

Black Phoenix II (1991) by Ralph Hotere, installed in 2005 as the centrepiece of the Hotere Garden Oputae on Observation Point, Port Chalmers. Based on the stern section of the fishing boat ‘Poitrel’ which had been destroyed by fire.

First the essentially rear view from the up-harbour side, late afternoon November 2011.

Then a frontal view from the down-harbour side. An arrow points to an observation on Hone Papita Raukura Hotere’s death – that Ralph Hotere’s work lives on, in full vigour.

Detail including the stainless steel panels, and subtle light through the red glass which backs paired gaps in the burnt timbers. A frontal view, because I would so much like to visit more often, in different light and weathers …